Lisa Poirier is a scholar of Native American religions in
particular, and religion and colonialism in general. In her book, Religion, Gender, and Kinship in Colonial New France (Syracuse University Press,
2016), she investigated the ways in which Native men and women of the Wendat
Confederacy and French explorers, missionaries and settlers employed
kinship-building strategies as they struggled to create new religious
orientations that would enable them to survive the life-and-death challenges of
early seventeenth-century New France. Her academic interests do sometimes
go beyond the colonial period; for instance, in her most recent article published
in the journal Religion and Popular Culture, she explored the ways in
which the twentieth-century Kaw/Mvskoki jazz saxophonist Jim Pepper was
influenced by the sacred music of the Native American Church. Poirier's
most current research investigates the religious creativity of Native women in
Great Lakes environments in the eighteenth century.
Research Interests
- Native American Religions
- Religion and Colonialism
- Religions of the Americas
- Theory & Method in the Study of Religion
Courses Frequently Taught REL 161 Native American Religions
REL 215 New Religious Movements
REL 278 Gender Identities, Sexuality and Religion
HON 104 Religious Worldviews and Ethical Perspectives